Inmate: Guard Aided Louisiana Escape Potlatch Man Captured In Texas Says Idaho Prisoners Bought Wire Cutters From Guard

An Idaho inmate who escaped from a private Louisiana prison says he purchased wire cutters from a guard before the escape.

Convicted murderer Roger Dale Babb of Potlatch and child molester Kallahan Lee Ziegler, from Kootenai County, were among five Idaho inmates who cut through two chain-link security fences a week ago. Hundreds of Idaho inmates are housed at the privately run Basile Detention Center in rural southwestern Louisiana.

Warden Richard Wall has said the inmates apparently stole the cutters from a construction site inside the prison. But Babb told a newspaper in Beaumont, Texas, where he surrendered Sunday night, that he bought them from a guard.

Two inmates were caught within a couple of hours. A third was caught in Beauregard Parish in a stolen truck. A truck stolen about 10 miles west of the prison also had been found, abandoned, in Beauregard Parish.

Idaho Department of Correction spokesman Mark Carnopis said the Idaho agency considers the escape to “be a very grave situation” and is expecting a full report from Louisiana Correction Services.

“We are giving them a little space to conduct their investigation, but we are expecting some hard and solid answers,” he said. “This is not a good situation at all and is very disturbing to the department.”

Although Ziegler, 24, was still missing Wednesday, Carnopis said Idaho prison officials have received information that Ziegler may be waiting for his mother, who lives in Washington state, to pick him up.

Babb, 41, is serving 20 years to life in prison for the 1991 first-degree murder of farmer Ronald Boone. He told officials after surrendering that he escaped to force his return to Idaho because of a lack of medical and legal services at the Basile facility.

Carnopis said that was true when the inmates arrived, but the problems have been fixed. He said the four inmates recaptured, including convicted murderer Michael John Copenhaver of Idaho Falls, will remain in Louisiana.

Three hundred of the Basile Detention Center’s 504 inmates are from Idaho, which pays $36.75 a day per inmate. Another 248 Idaho inmates are in Texas and 200 in Minnesota.

A July riot by 101 Idaho inmates in Basile caused at least $35,000 damage to televisions, beds, windows and light fixtures. The prisoners cited the opening of their mail and lack of rehabilitation classes as reasons for their violence.